Transmitters for remotely controlling the operation of movable barriers, for example garage doors, are often placed in the vehicle of the owner and actuated by the owner when the vehicle approaches the garage. For instance, the owner may press a button or buttons on the transmitter, and in response, the transmitter sends a signal to a receiver that is located in the garage and connected to the movable barrier operator. Upon receiving the signal, the receiver determines if the signal is authentic. For example, the receiver may determine if the signal includes a code that correlates with a code stored at the receiver. If a correlation is determined, an entry signal is applied to the movable barrier operator, and motors in the movable barrier operator cause the garage door to lift, allowing the owner to access the interior of the garage.
Many movable barrier operators, for example, garage door operators, use codes to activate the system where the codes change after each transmission. Such varying codes, called rolling access codes, are created by the transmitter and acted on by the receiver, both of which operate in accordance with the same method to predict a next rolling access code to be sent and received. One such rolling type access code includes four portions, a fixed transmitter identification portion, a rolling code portion, a fixed transmitter type identification portion, and a fixed switch identification portion. In this example, the fixed transmitter identification is a unique transmitter identification number. The rolling code portion is a number that changes every transmission to confirm that the transmission is not a recorded transmission. The fixed transmitter type identification is used to notify the movable barrier operator of the type and features of the transmitter. The switch identification is used to identify which switch on the transmitter is being pressed, because there are systems where the function performed is different depending on which switch is pressed.
When the movable barrier operator is installed, the homeowner typically receives at least one handheld transmitter that is already trained into the operator. To operate the door from a new learning transceiver, there is generally a two-step learning procedure for training the new learning transceiver. The first step is to teach the learning transceiver the type and potentially the code of the owner's handheld transmitter. While holding the handheld transmitter a few inches from the learning transceiver, the owner presses and holds the handheld transmitter's button at the same time as pressing a button on the learning transceiver to teach the access code type and frequency to the learning transceiver. The second step of the learning process is to train the learning transceiver to the operator. To do this, the learn button on the overhead operator has to be pressed, and within a given time period the learning transceiver should be activated.
In another prior approach, these two steps are combined into a single step or done simultaneously. In one example, a pre-trained transmitter transmits a code to both an operator and a learning transceiver, which both save the code. Next, within a predetermined amount of time, the button is pressed on the learning transceiver to transmit a second rolling access code, which is received by the operator and compared with the first rolling type access code saved in the operator. If a predetermined correlation exists between the first rolling type access code and the second rolling type access code, the operator stores the representation of the second rolling type access code from the learning transceiver. Requiring that a user physically possess a pre-trained transmitter to train a learning transceiver to a movable barrier operator according to this approach ensures that the user is authorized to access the garage.
While these approaches are generally sufficient to train a learning transceiver to operate with a movable barrier operator while prohibiting unauthorized access, they are often inconvenient because they require the user to use a third piece of equipment, the pre-trained transmitter, to train the learning transceiver. For example, a user may find it confusing to use a pre-trained transmitter in a vehicle that comes equipped with an integral learning transceiver in order to train the integral learning transceiver. In addition, if multiple users require access to the same garage interior space, it may be inconvenient to require each user to use a pre-trained transmitter to train a learning transceiver.